Second civil case against Chevron transferred to Rio de Janeiro

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Brazil transferred a civil suit against oil giant Chevron Corp. to a court in Rio de Janeiro to determine if the case is linked to another civil suit filed against Chevron.

Both cases stem from an oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in November 2011. Brazilian federal prosecutor Eduardo Santos de Oliveira filed the first suit in December 2011; the second suit came about in March, after Chevron announced that its offshore oil field was still oozing oil.

It has been a hard road for Oliveira, who has had his attempts to suspend the local operations of Chevron and rig operator Transocean Ltd. denied twice already. Now, this decision may result in both civil cases being taken away from Oliveira, though he would still lead the criminal case against Chevron and Transocean.